Sid Menon | 2021

Product Design
Engineering Portfolio
 table of
CONTENTS

C.V 3
Ooni Pro Rendering 4
Caraid 6
Doggo 9
Olfactory Display 12
Jack in the Box 15
2
 [email protected]

C.V
https://sidmenondesign.com

+44 7986 276496

linkedin.com/in/sid-menon1997

Siddharth
Menon University of Glasgow & The Glasgow School of Art (2019-20)

Education
MSc Product Design Engineering | Merit
University of Warwick (2015-19)
BSc Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering | 2:2
Queen Elizabeth’s School for Boys, Barnet (2008-15)
A*AABB at A Level (Product Design, Maths, English Literature,
Further Maths, Physics) | 11 A* 2A at GCSE | Arkwright Scholar
Product Design
Engineer Sketching Quality Function Deployment

Analogue
Concept Ideation FMEA
About Me Rapid Prototyping Consumer Microelectronics
User Ethnography Visualisation
Hi! I’m Sid, and I live and breathe design. A root in mechanical Design for Manufacture & Assembly Lean Principles
engineering with a lifelong passion for product design means that Typography Presentation Skills
I’m logical and efficient with a strong creative streak that
encourages outside-the-box thinking. My philosophy is fundamentally
user-centric, and I employ generative and iterative techniques to
get into the mind of who I’m designing for. In terms of aesthetic
style, I’m a chameleon. I’m adaptive and appreciate a variety of

Digital
artistic techniques.

I am always inquisitive; I continuously look for opportunities to

learn and add skills to my repertoire. I thrive in high pressure,
collaborative environments. In my spare time I love to produce
music, cook and keep active by cycling or bouldering.

3
Ooni Pro Rendering [2 days]

4
 A render of Ooni’s flagship
pizza oven: the Ooni Pro
Using video footage and stock images of the Ooni Pro, I created a
scaled CAD drawing using Autodesk Fusion 360, and subsequently
produced a render with the same software.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A A

B B

A
C C

A (6:5)
D D

E E

Dept. Technical reference Created by Approved by

Sid Menon 30/03/2021

Document type Document status

Engineering Drawing
Title DWG No.

F Ooni Pro 1 F

Rev. Date of issue Sheet

2 1/1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

5
Caraid [5 months]

6
Caraid: Designing for the Homeless Hardware
There is typically a social barrier which prevents the

PROBLEM
majority of pedestrians from approaching the homeless;
fear, guilt and resentment. This contributes to a lack
13.56MHz RFID tag and integrated antenna
of donations. Rough sleepers also widely suffer from
for contactless payments
sleep deprivation, inhibiting them from carrying out
basic activities.

OPPORTUNITY
Society is rapidly adopting a cashless
Mobile phone charm connected to end of
way of living. In the short term this
device for easy transportation
is causing donation figures to regress
however there is opportunity to
streamline the donation process using
a cashless system in order to generate
greater revenue streams than ever Blue LED that activates when payment is
before. made via EM proximity sensor.

SOLUTION
Two 0.15W miniature speakers designed to
emit 70dB generated white noise.

A cheap, robust device and complimentary TE Connectivity GPS module for UI

system that encourages cashless integration. Laser engraved ID number.
donations and enables the homeless to
make contactless payments. An online
interface purposed with humanising rough
sleepers. A device that also helps to
Micro-USB charging port connected to two
address the issue of sleep deprivation Li Ion cells each with a capacity of 200mAh
by using white noise therapy.

7
 Brand
Design
Final
Design User
Interface
User Caraid is the word for

Scenario
‘friend’ in Scottish Gaelic,
and the product was
developed with the
Scottish homeless in
mind initially. It is
pronounced similar to
the English word
‘courage’, whilst
appearing to being made
up of the charitable
words ‘care’ and ‘aid’.

UI was developed using

Figma. It is tasked with
humanising the rough
sleepers in proximity to
the user and facilitating
mobile donations.

8
Doggo [2.5 months, collaborative]

9
What if dogs could fly?
or rather:
what if there was an answer to the negative
stigma of pet cargo transportation, that could
guarantee safety, comfort and transparency?

Design Journey
Alex

User Persona
Market User
Research Research
Alex is a dog owner, with a travel-intensive job. Age: 22
He’s new to Birmingham and doesn’t have close
friends he could trust leaving his dog with. Occupation: Field Journalist

- Existing products - Personas & scenarios

- Design
- Existing services - Video storyboarding
- Defining stakeholders - User interviews Concept
Generation
opportunities
- Brainstorming
- Sketching
Jordan
Jordan is a baggage handler with an erratic Age: 34
personality. He works two jobs and is hasty in
nature, leading to frequent mishandling of cargo. Occupation: Cargo Handler

Rapid
Prototyping Cooper
Cooper is Alex’s Labrador. He’s anxious in Age: 9 dog years
confined spaces and doesn’t respond well to other
Occupation: Good Boy
dogs.He is energetic and restless.
- 3D printing
- 1:1 scale
card modelling

Storyboard
FEATURES
- Comfort padding
- Removable hydrophobic sanitary cushion
Final - Ambient lighting w/ custom hue/brightness
concept -
-
Active ventilation via axial fans
Temperature control via resistive heating
- Retractable handle and ball-bearing wheels
- Magnetic tessellated locking system
- User Interface for communication on plane

10
Ideation
& 1
Develop
Concept sketching and Brainstorming

ment 2 Rapid Prototyping

3 Technical Detailing

4
User Interface and Service Design

11
Olfactory Display [6 months]

12
ol·fac·tion Technology
Semi-conductive Peltier components (typically used for coolant
n. the act or process of smelling properties) were used to generate a temperature difference as a
result of a variable voltage. These would be consistently heating
Olfactory Display: a device that generates scents with the wax modules just below their melting point until instructed
by the microcontroller to activate the required aroma.
the intended component and concentration of odour
material and provides it to the human olfactory organ The parts are configured as
shown to the left. Copper
plates were placed between the
wax modules and Peltier heaters
Until the date of this project, olfactory for increased conductivity and
displays have largely been dependent on temperature stabilisation. A
VOC (Volatile Organic Compound)
liquid-phase methods of aroma generation sensor would analyse the
(inkjet or vapour technology). This ‘Parts-per-million’ count (i.e.
the intensity) of the aroma and
device pioneers the implementation of a feed that information to the

solid-phase aroma dispersal via a Arduino Uno microcontroller,

which would subsequently alter
thermo-electric heating approach. the temperature setting for
each module.

An Adafruit Bluetooth component

This project was comprised of 4 parts: allowed wireless communication
between a custom Graphical User
Interface and the Olfactory
Programming Display, which would assist with
testing later on. The GUI was
Mounting design
operable on both tablets and PC.
Component testing
People testing

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 Peltier modules were held in place by screws, and were The microcontroller and breadboard were mounted onto the Axial fans were mounted onto custom 3D printed brackets. 2
mounted onto an aluminium heatsink.Thermal paste was used same acrylic unit as the heatsink assembly. Space fans were used, and had finger guards placed over them to
Mounting
Testing to fix the copper plates onto the Peltier heaters. efficiency was extensively considered. prevent exposure of the blades to the user.

Experiments designed for the user (anosmia sufferers) and Essential oils & dyes were used with granulated wax to
The olfactory display was mounted inside a modified speaker
took place in a down flow workstation for neutral airflow. create aroma modules, with VOC testing done to calibrate
casing, as this was intended to be a one-off prototype.
15 participants were tested, and response data recorded. intensities. Coffee was used to prevent olfactory fatigue.

14
Jack in the Box [3 weeks]

15
2
 Q: How does the
internal mechanism
of a jack-in-a-box work?

A: The crank handle is manually turned in a clockwise direction by the user. A

worm screw is connected to the end of the crank handle, which interlocks with
a worm wheel attached to the end of the music drum.

The music drum turns, and small extrusions on its curvature clip an array of
rigid metal cantilevers, producing a melody. A toothed extension on one end
of the music drum starts to lift the latch piece as the melody ends.

The latch piece pivots clockwise, causing the part holding the lid in place
to move downwards and out of position. For the rest of the cycle it is held
in position by a compression spring connected to the rest of frame.

Q: How would you adapt the mechanism so that you could

reverse the direction of the latch?

A: The latch in the original design (left) wasted space

and offered opportunity for further redesign. I
decided to split the latch into 3 pieces.

The two larger pieces have one degree of rotational

freedom. They are held in place by being pinned to
the iron frame and the 3rd piece (which is anchored
to the frame by a compression spring).

The efficiency of the spring is improved by guiding

the middle piece along a vertical slot in the frame.

16
 Q: How could you minituarise the
mechanism so that it fits in a pocket?

A: A new gear arrangement, solved the issue to producing a

consistently anti-clockwise rotation regardless of the direction
of the string’s motion - when it resets, the music drum will
continue turning as it was. This allowed the crank to be
replaced by a pulley, saving space and mass.

The idea of a sock puppet was scrapped, and a 2D fold-out ‘Jack’

was adopted. This meant that the Jack could be mounted directly
above the frame as opposed to its side, conserving space.

Instead of the
spring being mounted
underneath it, the
lid had 4 torsion
springs attached at
its hinge, with the
other ends of the
springs directly
mounted onto the
casing.

17